The Center for Responsive Politics is closed for Columbus Day. If you’re a reporter with an urgent deadline, email [email protected] and we’ll do our best to get back to you.

We still present you, however, with your daily dose of what’s trending in money and politics:

LOBBYING FOR COLUMBUS: Although history suggests people of the Western hemisphere have celebrated Christopher Columbus’ journey and Europe’s discovery of the Americas for hundreds of years, the modern version of Columbus Day wasn’t established until almost five centuries after he landed in Central America.

In a presidential proclamation, Richard M. Nixon established the second Monday in October as the official day of remembrance. But it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt who first declared Oct. 12 to be the federal holiday in 1937 — after some lobbying by the Knights of Columbus.

The group — which selected its name partially because it was seen as a symbol of Italian and Catholic immigrants, according to historical author Timothy Kubal — lobbied Congress and the president in the 1930s to make Columbus Day an official federal holiday.

These days, the group spends its lobbying dollars on tax issues. Working with firm Quinn Gillespie & Associates, the Knights of Columbus had spent $40,000 through June 30 of this year on lobbying expenditures, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics (new lobbying reports covering the third quarter are due later this month). That number puts the once-crusaders for Columbus Day roughly on track to match its $75,000 in 2011 and $80,000 annually from 2007 to 2010.

UNEMPLOYMENT CONSPIRACY THEORIST GIVES SMALL TO ROMNEY: The latest numbers released by the Labor Department Friday revealed that unemployment was down to 7.8%, the lowest it’s been since January 2009.

The timing is pretty fortunate for President Barack Obama, coming off a debate against Mitt Romney in which Obama was widely considered the poorer performer — perhaps too fortunate, if you’re a conspiracy theorist. Some people, including Florida Republican Rep. Allen West, are convinced that Obama had the Bureau of Labor Statistics cook the books.

The most prominent of these fringe theorists is Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, who tweeted on his @jack_welch account:

Although Welch is apparently anti-Obama, he’s contributed only $2,500 to Mitt Romney this year. He was much more active in 2010, when he gave $2,400 each to Rand Paul (Paul actually got two contributions of this size), Christine O’Donnell, Marco Rubio, Michele Bachmann and six other Republican candidates, according to CRP research.

WAL-MART STRIKERS IN FOR BAD NEWS:Wal-Mart employees from nine of the company’s stories staged a one-day strike in Los Angeles late last week, the first time such an event has occurred.

The workers — who, like all of the chain’s employees, are not represented by a labor union — were protesting sanctions they faced when they complained about working conditions.

Wal-Mart has a history of tense labor relations, including several lawsuits filed by women employees accusing the company of gender discrimination. One suit was filed last week in federal court in Florida.

Although Wal-Mart said that the strike had no effect on its sales, the company keeps an eye on labor issues. Labor, antitrust and workplace issues account for the company’s second-largest lobbying expense, right after taxes.

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